Anyone who prefers the good old days of a seething scrum at the bar, rather than orderly queueing, is probably the exact personality type that makes the scrum unpleasant (‘It’s ridiculous’: publicans bemused by rise of single-file queues to get served, 31 January).
Bar staff have enough to deal with without trying to ensure that the more diffident, neurodiverse or otherwise differently abled customers are not overlooked or even elbowed out of the way by their brasher, louder, entitled neighbours. I worked in pubs for many years and a clear line of customers would have been an absolute delight.
If bar owners don’t like queueing, perhaps they should look at the layout of their bar area, the efficiency of their dispensing equipment, the usability of their tills and payment methods, and the motivation and job satisfaction of their staff, rather than victim-blaming their clientele, who are implementing a democratic solution that works for everyone.
Stephen Mansfield
Whaley Bridge, Derbyshire
• I appreciated the message above the bar at the Nicholson’s pub at the 02 Arena in London: “We’re a pub not a post office, no need to queue”. Sadly, it wasn’t working, and I was reading it from one of three queues. In spite of decades of waiting at the bar and following the combined arrangement of courtesy between punters and the skill of the bar staff to know who’s next, that night I was too British to barge forward.
Jacqueline Douglas
Weston Colville, Cambridgeshire
• Young people today. I just can’t make them out: queueing in the pub (often for zero-alcohol drinks), not having sex until married (or at all), not smoking (not even dope), attending church, not even learning to drive. Not like it was in my day.
Patrick Cosgrove
Bucknell, Shropshire
• Have an opinion on anything you’ve read in the Guardian today? Please email us your letter and it will be considered for publication in our letters section.
